Al Fayyum
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(Staatliche Antikensammlung, Munich). Encaustic on wood; 37 x 20 cm.
Al Fayyum or El Faiyûm (Arabic: الفيوم ; from Coptic Efiom or Ph-iom or Fiûm, which means 'the Sea'), formerly Medinet al Fayyum (written in several different ways), is the capital of Al Fayyum Governorate, Egypt. It is located southwest of Cairo and occupies part of the ancient site of Crocodilopolis.
Al-Fayyum is an agricultural center with a population of about 166,910, and has several large bazaars, mosques, baths and a much-frequented weekly market. The Bahr Yusuf runs through the town, its banks lined with houses. There are two bridges over the stream: one of three arches, which carries the main street and bazaar, and one of two arches over which is built the Kait Bey mosque. Mounds north of the town mark the site of Arsinoe, known to the ancient Greeks as Crocodilopolis, where in ancient times the sacred crocodile kept in Lake Moeris was worshipped. In Ancient Hellenistic and Roman periods the region of Al-Fayyum was settled predominantly by Greeks[1][2][3][4] who helped create a distinctive cultural milieu encompassing temple building projects and unusual sculpture.[5]
[edit] Fayum mummy portraits
Al-Fayyum is the source of some famous mummy portraits painted by Greek artists[6][7][8] during Hellenistic and Roman periods. The Fayum, or mummy, portraits are Egyptian only in that they are associated with essentially Egyptian burial customs. Painted on wood in a pigmented wax technique called encaustic technique, they represent mostly Greek inhabitants[9][10] of Egypt. Seen properly in context, as in the complete mummy of Artemidorus (British Museum), they provide a strange epilogue to the funerary art of 3,000 years of pharaonic Egypt. The man in the image to the right wears simple Roman garb and has a hairstyle popular during Marcus Aurelius's reign.
[edit] Notes
- ^ The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World, Cambridge University Press, p.39
- ^ ENCYCLOPEDIA of Painting Painters and Painting from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day of the World, Bernard S. Myers, University of Michigan - Crown Publishers, p.175
- ^ Portraits of the Ptolemies: Greek Kings as Egyptian Pharaohs, Paul Edmund Stanwick, University of Texas Press, p.23
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica Online - Fayyum
- ^ Portraits of the Ptolemies: Greek Kings as Egyptian Pharaohs, Paul Edmund Stanwick, University of Texas Press, p.23
- ^ Egypt, Cherine Badawi, p.120
- ^ The World Museums Guide, Barbara Cooper, Maureen Matheson, Barbara Rosen, Threshold Books Ltd, p.66
- ^ Restauração de Pinturas: aplicações da encáustica, Edson Motta, Maria Luiza Guimarães Salgado, p.93
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica Online - Egyptian art and architecture - Greco-Roman Egypt
- ^ ENCYCLOPEDIA of Painting Painters and Painting from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day of the World, Bernard S. Myers, University of Michigan - Crown Publishers, p.175
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